US Restarts Green Card Lottery with Stricter Passport Verification Rules

The US has resumed the Diversity Immigrant Visa programme, known as the Green Card lottery, after a pause, introducing stricter rules requiring applicants to submit valid passport details and scanned copies during initial application to reduce fraud. These changes, effective from April 10, 2026, aim to strengthen identity verification and address duplicate entries. However, Indian applicants remain excluded from the programme and will not be directly affected by these updates.